Small Business Marketing Plan – Increase Your Business Profit Without Breaking Your Marketing Budget
Most small business owners fail when it comes to their small business marketing plans. They’ve got excellent technical skills in their line of work, but that just doesn’t translate to having effective marketing skills.As a result, profitability of many small businesses has been declining over the years. Ever increasing competition is making it more challenging in many ways. For those businesses that aren’t losing money, most are not producing the profit they could be if they knew how to market themselves properly.These business owners usually just copy what they see other businesses doing, or they follow the advice of some media sales person. The problem is they copy the wrong types of businesses, and the media sales people typically only know as much about effective marketing as the business owner does.Without the right kind of marketing system in place, the success of any business is by pure chance. To help remedy this situation, below are seven things a small business can do to increase profits while spending less on marketing.1. Use the power of free stuffEveryone likes getting free stuff and you can use that to your advantage. If your business lends itself to giving away free samples of your product, do that. It helps get people hooked on it. Business profits have boomed on this marketing model.As Chris Anderson author of the book titled, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” says, “You can make make money giving things away.” In his book he talks about how businesses are giving away products and services they used to charge for, and in return, a percentage of their customers are buying something else. As a result, they are making more money than ever.When you give something away, you often activate a universal law called the “Law of Reciprocity.” It says that when people get something free, they feel obligated to do something for you. Obviously it doesn’t work every time, but it does work enough of the time.But there is another way to give away free stuff that can greatly benefit your business. When you do it right you get something very valuable in return: customer contact info…which leads us to the next tip.2. Start capturing customer contact info and use itOne of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is not tapping their current customer base. They let customers visit their business (online or offline) all day long without ever trying to capture their contact info so they can continue to market products or services to them.You likely know how expensive it can be to get a new customer. But you can market to your current customers for little or no cost. Capturing and using customer contact info can mean the difference between a profitable business and one that barely gets by.Your business has more customer value in it than a customer can possibly digest in a short visit so if you aren’t continually marketing to your customers, you are throwing money away!You can make customer contact capture easier simply by using the power of free from tip number one. Simply start a monthly drawing to give away something free and print some registration slips visitors can fill out. Also have people register online on your website.Tell customers they only have to register once for all drawings and you will contact them monthly via email to let them know who won. Of course you will always include an offer for a product or service!What do you give away? Anything with a perceived value makes a great free item. Free items do not have to be expensive. Buy something on sale at WalMart or at eBay and offer it. You can also offer free informational reports that help people solve their problems. People are always looking for ways to solve problems they are having.Of course, once you capture this information you have to do something with it. If you’re too busy to take on any more work, then the next tip will help you out.3. Use automated tools to keep in touch with customersOnce you have a customer list, I recommend you send a minimum of 25 “messages” a year to it. A message could be an email, direct mail piece, fax, or phone call.If you don’t use an automated tool to do the work for you, you’ll likely be too busy to get the job done. When you automate, your messages go out regardless of how busy you get (the more messages that go out, the busier you’ll get).One tool you can use is an email autoresponder, which is a web-based system that sends out emails when someone signs up. It sends out emails at intervals you set up. You can also set it up to send an email on a specific day, such as a holiday.The great thing about an autoresponder tool is that you enter your messages in the autoresponder one time, then it automatically sends emails to your list. You can also broadcast messages any time you want.Using this tool, keeping in touch with your customers is easy and it will help keep the competition from creeping in and stealing your customers because they’ve forgotten about you and the services you provide.4. Stop marketing like you’re a big business.Marketing a small business like it’s a big business is something almost every small business owner does. They just copy the marketing they see being done at large companies with big brands. This kind of marketing is called “brand identity,” “brand building,” or “image” marketing.This is a HUGE waste of advertising money for a small business. You simply don’t have the resources you need to support a successful branding campaign.Brand advertising typically has no “call to action,” (they don’t ask you to do anything). They just give you features of the product or service, or they entertain you without asking you to do anything.Brand advertising is usually benefit free. The viewer has to determine if there is a benefit to them. It may contain a list of features and the user will have to assign their own benefit to each feature. It is usually focused on the product or provider of the product instead if the customer.A successful marketing campaign for a small business is created around direct response marketing techniques.5. Use old fashioned direct response techniques in new waysThe kind of marketing plan that works for a small business is direct response marketing. It doesn’t require a huge marketing budget to use effectively. It can be used for all types of products and services.And the good news is that you don’t even have to hire an advertising agency to do it since it doesn’t require creativity. All you have to do is learn the basic structure of direct response marketing and you can easily increase the sales your business makes.Direct response sales copy always asks the reader or viewer to take some sort of action i.e. “Call in the next 5 minutes, and we’ll include a free set of Ginzu steak knives!”.It may ask for the sale directly if a full “sales presentation” was done (one-step advertising), or it may ask them to request more information (two-step advertising). It will at a minimum, ask the reader to take some form of “traceable” action so you know if it is working or not.There should always be a headline for written advertisements! Never put your company logo at the top of a direct response advertisement. That’s brand advertising.Whenever you create an advertisement in any form always look at them from the customer point of view. Look it and ask “Who gives a crap?” about everything in it. Do you think the customer cares about your logo. No! They care about what you can do for them. Put in benefits and not features. Let the customer know what’s in it for them. A successful direct response ad for a small business includes several things:
An offer to buy something
Sufficient information for the consumer to make a decision to act now (or directions on how to get more info)
An explicit “call to action” sooner rather than later
A clear way to respond such as a telephone number or web page
A means of tracking the response.
Direct response advertising is not just used for mail campaigns. You use it in all forms of media: print, web, mail, and broadcast. Take a look at all the advertising you are currently doing no matter where it is and start making the change now.6. Use the Internet to advertise for freeEven though websites as we know them have existed since around the early 90s, only 49%* of small businesses currently have a website *9/08, Barlow Research. It’s surprising how many businesses do not understand how powerful this marketing tool is. If you don’t have a website, get one because there is no better source of free advertising!The Internet has hundreds of “Web 2.0″ websites where you post “content” for free. The content can be text, videos, or audios you create and it can lead people to your business. Plus, it helps establish you as an expert in your field.EzineArticles.com is one such place you can post content. There was no charge to post this article. All I had to do is write it, post it, and then you found it.You can put links in the “author resource” section, to drive traffic to a page on your website. The articles you post in EzineArticles can rank extremely well in Google search results with a little help from you.You also want to get your business listed in places like Google Local if you do local business. Once again this is absolutely free.Once you learn how to do use the Internet for promotion you’ll have a head start on the future of advertising and you get customers for free!7. Outsource routine marketing tasks so you can work on the growing your businessOne of the biggest problems small business owners have is that they get so consumed by working IN their business, they don’t have time to work ON their business. So no growth can occur.When it comes to marketing yourself on the Internet, there are ways to use “virtual assistants” to do most of the work for you. A virtual assistant is someone you hire on a full or part-time basis who does the work for you.But a virtual assistant is not a direct employee so you don’t provide benefits or have the normal hassles of an employee. They are usually located somewhere in the world that has low-cost wages so they are very affordable. That’s the beauty of the Internet and the communication it provides.Virtual assistants aren’t just confined to small business marketing plan tasks though. They can do almost anything for you: reservations, schedule appointments, answer phones, customer service, send flowers, buy a present for your spouse, find someone to fix your car, website development, accounting, software development, writing, graphics, or anything you need.There are lots of resources on the Internet that can help you find a virtual assistant.Create Your Small Business Marketing Plan Now!Use these seven marketing tips to start building your small business marketing plan right now. If you procrastinate, your busy life will get in the way of business growth. Even if you only take a little of the advice you’ve been given, you’ll find it can have a big impact on the profitability of your business.
Crypto Currency Vs Fiat Currency
Crypto currency vs. Fiat currency
Are you aware of the fiat currencies and the crypto currencies? They both are currencies in one form or the other and are open for public use across the world. But they are both different and distinct in their own ways. There is always one group that favors the use of cryptos, while the other has a soft corner for the fiat currencies.
In cashless society- crypto money play a huge role
If you have a look at the market of the 1970s and 1980s, you will find that the cash played the dominant role. But, with the change in the technology, electronic transactions have become the usual norm. Today, more and more people are influenced in becoming the cashless society. With the progress towards the cashless society, cryptocurrencies have a big role to play.
Crypto currency and fiat currency are always at loggerheads
Cryptocurrency and fiat currency are popular types of digital currency, especially when it is about an online transaction. They both are currencies currently in use in the market but have some differences in them. There is a hell lot of hypes that you will hear on a daily basis comparing the crypto money and the fiat money. This article will highlight the difference between the two in a more comprehensive and clear manner.
Differentiating in what the currencies stand for
Before going for the difference between the two, you must understand what do they stand for and how are they are defined.
The fiat currency is a legal tender that has the support of the central government, and it operates in the physical form. For instance, US dollars, British Pounds, Euro etc. On the other hand, the crypto currency is a non-legal tender, and doesn’t have any backup from the central government or bank.
Hence, the difference between crypto currency and fiat currency is noted as follows:
• Crypto-currencies are decentralized and global in nature. There are no one entity or government that controls the currency with their laws and regulations. The Fiat currency is centralized, under the control of the laws and regulations of the banks and government.
• Crypto-currencies have their existence only in the digital domain. On the other hand, you will find that the fiat currencies have a tangible and physical existence.
• There is a limited supply of crypto-currencies with a maximum set of them getting supplied in the market. Whereas, the fiat money has an unlimited supply as the government and bank are entitled to produce coins and paper money whenever the situation is required.
• The Bitcoin and other crypto type currencies are created by the computers, while the fiat currencies are issued by the local government and the banks.
• Cryptocurrencies are presented as the public and private code pieces. On the other hand, the fiat currencies are presented in the form of coins and paper money.
• The value of the crypto currencies is not recognized by the supply and demand of the market. Whereas, the fiat currency value is determined by the market regulations of supply and demand.
The different types of crypto and fiat currencies
In the last one decade, the popularity of crypto type currencies has emerged as a huge success. It was in 2009, when Bitcoin was first introduced, and years after several other types of crypto currencies have emerged. Starting from Litecoin. Dogecoin, Ripple to the Dcash and Zcash, there is a plethora of them. On the other hand, the fiat currency has a rich and ancient roots, with the Great British Pound, that dates back to 775 AD. It is considered as the oldest currency in the world that is still in use.
The differences in the anonymity between the two currencies
When you are using the fiat currencies, you need to undergo a user identification or verification process. You are asked to upload a recent picture of yourself and some of the required documents to be issued as per the public authorities. You don’t need to undergo any of the required processes with the crypto currencies. Though your personal information and confidential details don’t get public, but all your transactions are recorded and tracked in both the fiat and the crypto currencies.
Fiat currency vs crypto currency: transparency level
• The transparency level with the crypto type currencies are considered to be more. This is because the revenue streams are displayed in a public chain. Everyone can witness their own and others’ transactions.
• The fiat or govt. currencies are not transparent, as there are not public chains to see the revenue streams of the people.
A comparative historical roots
If you compare the crypto money with that of its counterpart, fiat or government currency, you will find that their existence and creation brings the difference. The Fiat or government currency, dates back its existence as early as 775 AD with the introduction of the Great British Pound. This is why fiat type currency is easily accepted by the people all over.
On the other hand, the crypto coin was perhaps first introduced only a decade ago, with the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. The challenge that the Bitcoin and other crypto currencies face is catching up with the immense popularity and increasing fan base of the fiat currency. Crypto currency, is no doubt gaining importance and popularity in the economic market, but it has still not been accepted widely in the society as the fiat currency.
A comparative history of the two currencies:
• It was in the 11th century, when the Chinese Song dynasty was perhaps the first one to issue the paper money. It was not allowed to exchange with valuables like gold and silver or silk.
• There were Tally sticks that were introduced as a fiat or government currency. 1100 Tally sticks were introduced as a combat for the shortages in gold.
• 1971, was the year, when the fiat currency received a worldwide recognition. President Nixon introduced it in order to eliminate the dollar pegging system to gold.
• It was in 1998, when the idea of an anonymous electronic cash system emerged by Wei Dai. Bitgold-the very first crypto currency was created by Nick Szabo, but it didn’t receive as much attention as Bitcoin.
• In 2009, Bitcoin was introduced in the market, that became the first crypto currency that was accepted across the globe. In 2011 and after, a series of several other crypto currencies were introduced. Some of the popular ones include, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Zcash, Dash and so on.
The traits of both the currencies
The potential of the crypto type currencies and fiat currencies, accessing their traits is important. You will find that in some of the criteria, Bitcoin and other crypto currency is superior than the fiat or government currency, and in some cases, the latter surpasses. It is absolutely your call to choose the type of currency (crypto type currency or fiat type currency) based on your personal needs and requirements.
Let us compare their traits with respect to certain factors.
• Both the crypto coins and fiat type currencies are interchangeable in nature.
• As per the portability is concerned both the currencies secure more or less the same position.
• With respect to the non consumable criteria, crypto currency and fiat type currency have the equal status.
• Crypto type currencies have high durability as compared to the fiat-currencies that have moderate level of durability.
• Both the crypto or virtual currencies and the fiat or government currencies ensure secure and safeguarded transactions and exchange.
• Crypto or digital currencies are highly divisible in nature. On the other hand, the fiat type currencies are moderately divisible.
• In terms of the transaction process, the crypto currencies are easy and hassle free. Whereas, on the other hand, the traction process associated with the fiat currencies are easy, but not like the cryptos.
• The crypto based currencies are decentralized and global in nature, unlike the fiat currencies that are centralized and functions under the laws and regulations of the government.
• The crypto based currencies have high scarcity, where as, the fiat currencies are unlimited as the government can issue coins and paper money whenever there is a need.
• The crypto based currencies are based on mathematical algorithms, and are programmable. The fiat currencies are not at all programmable.
• The fiat currencies are sovereign in nature, while the crypto currencies are not.
The process of the functioning of the currencies
You can find the significant differences between the crypto or digital currencies and the fiat currencies with the way they both operate and the transaction process that take place. They are contrasting in nature. The transfer of money using the Bitcoin is very quick, and you absolutely don’t need any third party association.
On the other hand, if you are involved with the money exchange using Fiat type currency, a mobile wallet is in use. You can exchange an amount of e-money that gets transferred into the equal e-value amount. Both the fiat and the crypto currencies enable you to purchase everything that you desire. But the processes involved are absolutely distinct from each other.
Depending on the things you purchase, you will find that one currency form is better than the other. This is absolutely your choice.
Is Bitcoin, a crypto currency better than the fiat-currency?
The long term benefits and the capability of the Bitcoins is still not established. But it has been predicted by the crypto currency gurus and experts, that they will go a long way, especially revolutionizing the way the online transactions are done. In the current market, the Bitcoin is mainly included in the online casinos and the gambling, but it is not limited to it.
Furthermore, when you compare the fiat currencies, the Bitcoin allows you to seize the power and authority from the banks and the government since it is not controlled. The cryptography based currency has the capability to create or come up with the free market capitals. Fiat currencies are affected by the inflation and the changes in the market, unlike the crypto based currencies. Such aspects make individuals believe that cryptograph based currencies will soon take over the mainstream currencies and bring a transformation in the way the money is used.
Why is Bitcoins considered to be a better aspect than the fiat type currencies?
• Bitcoin gives you the opportunity to re-create a free market capitalism.
• The power of controlling the money is absolutely with the individuals, and not with the banks like the fiat type currencies.
• When there is an inflation, the Bitcoin is not affected. But the Fiat type currency will be easier to lose and get affected by it.
• The Bitcoin currency is easy easier to exchange and transfer as compared to the fiat or government currencies.
• The transaction fees involved with the Bitcoin are way cheaper and easily affordable.
Crypto currencies seem to be a favorable option among the people
The fiat type currencies are the centralized and legal way of exchanging money. But, the crypto currencies have acquired immense popularity in the past few years. There will never be anyone who would act as a middle man, like the case with the banks. Moreover, the cryptos are way cheaper and less expensive that the conventional fiat currencies.
Send money anywhere directly without waiting for the bank’s approval
You can send money to anyone in the world directly, and it is super fast. The money gets cleared within a few minutes time. You don’t have to wait for the traditional clearing and verification processes of the banking systems, which might take up to several days to get a clearance. Since it is decentralized and doesn’t come under the law and regulations of the government, nobody has any power to do anything with your account.
The blockchain technology has a very big role to play
Thanks to the crypto currencies, that gives us the power and the authority to become our very own bank, and take control over our finances. It is because of the blockchain technology that offers a higher level of sophistication while dealing with the finances. In fact, there are some mainstream financial industries that have started incorporating the idea of the technology.
Are You Choosing the Right Stock Market Advisory Company
What do you do if you want to learn driving a car? You will try to find an expert teacher, isn’t it? You do not want to avail the services of a novice individual to help you out, but a professional person can provide you the vital tips and most importantly guide you efficiently. Similarly, when it comes to investing in the stock market for the first time, you require a knowledgeable advice to attain your financial goals and get profitable returns.
If you are a beginner, then it is quite obvious that you may be having no information about the process of buying the right shares in the market. In such a situation, getting the right tips from an experienced financial advisor or a registered advisory company will truly prove to be a great blessing in disguise. However, there are some of the important things that have to be kept in mind while choosing the top stock market advisory company, which are as follows:
How much assistance do you actually require?
Before you make up your mind to hire an advisor, it is imperative that you must first decide about the kind of service you require from them. You may need their help at the beginning or during the time of any issues. This is because an advisor has to formulate a map according to your requirements. Hence, it is suggested to ascertain your needs first and then take further action.
Choose a top ranked advisory company
It is a very important point that has to be taken into the consideration. Availing services of the well known advisory company or a financial advisor is an absolute necessity. Make it a point to carry out a proper background or research work about the company. Check out their credentials, reputation, experience, etc before hiring them.
Asking for a sample financial plan initially makes sense
When hiring a financial advisor, then do not forget to ask for sample plan first. It is imperative to note that there is no such thing called the perfect plan. A sample plan will help you to determine whether an advisory company is actually making sense according your requirements or not.
Conclusion
The financial planners or advisory companies can really turn out to be the greatest asset for you if you choose the best one. They are just like the professional sailors who can help you out to sail through stock investment related problems quite efficiently.
Deepak is a financial advisor who likes to provide quality tips to the people facing any issues with regard to investing in the stock market. He likes to keep himself updated about the stock market by reading articles, news and blogs, etc.